Album Review
Simon Bromide & The Bromides
Forest Mountain Forest
LP/CD/DL
Out 8 May 2026
South London singer-songwriter Simon Bromide continues his quest to become the music-obsessed, drinking man’s songwriter of choice. Following his well received album Following The Moon and single Not That Type (2022) with Forest Mountain Forest a single, with the same title as the album, he’s making the best music of his career and trading as Simon Bromide and The Bromides – to reflect a settled band line-up for his second LP, which is an artistic triumph says Ged Babey.
Warning: There is a song called ‘Clouds’ on this album. (I have to say that as I have a Big Punk Following and he don’t like that kinda thing.)
This is old-school, singer-songwriter stuff: camp-fire anthems… West Coast Country Rock style but with grooves and sounds that you’d hear on Blur, Charlatans and Happy Mondays tracks. Mainly upbeat and summery it is the kind of album which gets called ‘a feelgood album’ because it literally does. So there is a distinct need for it…
Whenever I see a solo singer/songwriter with an acoustic guitar, and I know its a travel-light, cheaper, easier option, I always think they really want to be, and need to be, in a band. Especially if the songs are great. (Go ahead, name the exceptions to my ‘rule’… there are a few perhaps.)
Simon Bromide does play solo gigs. He has the kind of charisma which means he can pull it off. But, on this album, with a full band, these songs are widescreen, epic country rock’n’roll works of pop art. Yet they retain his ‘character’ and individuality. There is a reason it has taken four years since the previous album for this to appear – he had to enlist the right people…. producer Brian O’Shaughnessy (Primal Scream, My Bloody Valentine, Denim), Ed Wright on bass, Sam Kelly on drums, Ollie Parfitt on keys, backing vocals from Piney Gir… to get it to sound this great. The production and musicianship really is fantastic.
Simon list of influences on the PR are Teenage Fanclub, Big Star, The Bevis Frond, Silver Jews & Mark Eitzel whereas what I actually hear are Tom Petty, Springsteen, Charlatans, the Flaming Lips, but none of these are bands I actually listen to that much – so what the fuck do I know?
But the thing is I instinctively love this album. It’s positivity, the tunes, the grooves, the lyrics…. it is a ‘feelgood’ album but with a dash of existential angst – and I gave it a second or third listen because I do like this dude. And now I love the tunes, the vibe, the whole kit and caboodle.
When I wrote about the single I characterized Simon as a bit of a hippy. He is Dylan from Magic Roundabout made flesh, disguised as a boho Eric Morecambe Yet he is a songwriter who writes breezy pop songs that mention ‘A fascination with Pelmanism‘, Jean-Luc Godard, the ‘Tower of Song’, the movie Carlito’s Way, a ‘Song For Elon Musk’ and an Ella Fitzgerald remark to Tony Bennet. This makes him an extraordinary magpie-like talent as a songwriter. He writes songs that no-one else can.
One of many album highlights is the current single Jean-Luc Godard Directs. I asked Simon about the inspiration for the song – and got this typically Bromide explanation.
It literally sprung out one day at a rehearsal. On my way to the practise room I’d had a duel with a van going across Blackheath so I was in quite a hyper state, plus around that same time I’d witnessed a homeless person giving out flowers to random motorists queueing at a traffic light near Aldgate. Both these unrelated incidents focussed my mind on the power of good and evil and in turn led me back to the central theme of Bulgakov’s ‘The master and margarita’ and it’s key question: “What would your good be doing if there were no evil, and what would the earth look like if shadows disappeared from it?”
Plus I’d always been fascinated by Jean-Luc Godard’s footage of the Stones working up Mick’s song inspired by the book into ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ at Olympic studios – so my song then became this kind of homage to that as well. I love the way you can weave together different events and ideas into songs without having to explain anything!
There are a couple of songs which are about songs and songwriting. Leonard’s Chair begins: Come on let’s sing the new song / The one not written yet / The one without any words to forget / The one that isn’t about anything / It’s so empty you can hear it ring.
And there is another called Sing To Forget, but the closing song features the odd line I wanna talk about the jam we made. OK it might be about making a fruity preserve but it points to being more about a musical jam session and the unity and joy it brings. We’re All Here is built around an Ella quote as relayed by her friend Tony Bennett about the racism she experienced as a performer: She never made a political statement. Except the one I heard her say. Was only three words. She said “Tony, we’re all here”
It’s a fantastic song to close the album on a high.
Great tunes, songs with a lot of soul, class, character and ideas behind them, Forest Mountain Forest, you really can say is one of the Feelgood LP’s of the Summer of 2026. Official.
Buy from Bandcamp
Links
Facebook
Instagram
Youtube
Spotify
Official website
Live Dates
Fri 8th May– Dash the Henge instore, Camberwell SE5 0RW 7pm
Sat 9th May– Scratchstock #43 – The Old Dispensary, Camberwell SE5 0TF 7pm
Sat 16th May– The Old Mill, Plumstead SE18 1QG 8pm
Sat 6thjune –Plumstead Make Merry, PlumsteadSE18 1QG– on stage 4pm
Sun 28th June–Leigh Folk Festival –The Pink Flamingo stage at The Broadway, Leigh-on-SeaSS9 1AW– on stage 4pm
All words Ged Babey with PR, quotes and lyrics in italics.
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